Category Archives: Personal stories

The Disappearing Bumps

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Leonard FishSeveral months ago I noticed a couple of bumps on my chest. Just large enough to be slightly concerned, but not overly excited about. I thought I would try rubbing some essential oils on the bumps to see what would happen. I mixed 8 drops frankincense and 3 drops each of, helichrysum, juniper berry, thyme, geranium and lavender into a 15ml bottle. Then I filled the rest of the bottle up with fractionated coconut oil.

I didn’t think much about it. I started rubbing this mixture on the bumps on my chest as part of my daily routine when I would get out of the shower. We all have many routines that we do, that become muscle memory. That’s what started to happen with me.

One day as I was going through the motions I stopped to feel my chest where the bumps were. I had to really search the area on my chest to find the bumps. I have the slightest bumps that have dramatically reduced in size. I have no idea if these bumps could have posed a threat. I am grateful to have tools in my medicine cabinet that are natural, without harmful side effects that prescription drugs have.

A Fish Tale

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Screen shot 2014-10-08 at 5.44.40 AMWhen I was nine or ten I went fishing with my dad and older brother. We must have caught three or four good sized fish. Then my dad and brother gutted the fish which I considered disgusting.

When we got home my mom cooked up the fish, and I remember the entire house smelled of it. Then we sat down as a family to eat all this fried fish for dinner. I didn’t get all the bones out of my fish and I didn’t like the fishy taste. As a result of this experience, I don’t like anything to do with catching or eating fish. So my own rule is don’t eat the fish. This is a great rule for me because of a negative experience that I personally had. For many other people this would be a terrible rule.

How many of us follow rules even when we don’t understand why we are following them? Many rules that we follow are because of a negative experience that happened to someone else, or because of some unusual circumstances.

Mary was cooking a ham for dinner when one of her children asked her, “Why do you cut off the end of the ham when putting it in a pan? Mary’s response was “when I saw my mom cook a ham she always cut off the end of her hams.” Mary decided to call up her mom to find out why she cut the end of her ham off. Her response was, “my hams wouldn’t fit in any of my pans, so I cut the end off.”

Most things we do are based on how it was done in the past. When we get sick, what do we do, we reach for the pain relief capsules. We do what we were taught as children and young adults. We did the best we knew how with the knowledge we had at the time.

Now we know that with every man made drug there are harmful side effects, some minimal, others very dangerous, and compromising to our health. There is hope! I am excited to learn that there are essential oils that have no dangerous side effects, with positive results. I am happy to report my first line of defense when sick or healthy is by using powerful essential oils that have been studied for their healing properties.

Pie Perfection

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Privation PieWhen I was eleven I wanted to make a homemade chocolate cream pie. My mother gave me the recipe. Then she said, “I will be in my bedroom if you need me.” She later admitted she would have gone nuts watching me cook when I was first learning this skill. The recipe called for 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. I added 3 tablespoons of baking soda instead. The recipe said “bring to a boil.” I couldn’t understand why the pie filling was foaming over the top of the pan. I called my mom into the kitchen.

No sooner did she come into the kitchen when she grabbed a large pan and poured part of the pie filling into the second pan. It just kept growing. This is when my mom started questioning the ingredients I had added. When I got to the cornstarch on the recipe card, I pointed to the baking soda container and said I added cornstarch. I was then told, “This pie filling is no good. When you thought you were adding cornstarch you were adding baking soda.” You can do everything just right except for one thing, ending up with a huge disaster.

Years later when I was 18 I had an opportunity to work at two separate places that made pies. I learned different techniques of pie making from both places. The Saturday before Thanksgiving I spent 18 hours making pies at Marie Calendar’s. I am thankful for my training in pie making.

I have found myself showing several women’s groups how to make the perfect pie crust, and delicious pie fillings. My failure as a child was a stepping stone to my success with making pies today.

When you ask questions, not acting like you know it all, you will learn. I still find new ways to make things better from my past mistakes. Learning what works and what doesn’t is part of the joy.

Essential oils are a lot like my early days of cooking, when I made many mistakes with recipes. Now with essential oils I find myself continually going to my modern essential book which outlines the oil that works best for each condition I might have when I was unfamiliar with how the oils work. I find as in cooking, and with essential oils every time I fail, I am learning important life lessons.

 

Small Things Matter

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Small things matter.png

Several years ago when I was in 3rd grade I bought a yellow football. I was so excited to take it to school and play with it at recess. I don’t remember the details, but the ball ended up on the school roof, I was devastated! After school, I talked to the custodian. He brushed me off by saying he couldn’t get my ball down at that moment. I asked him later, and he told me he couldn’t find my football, I was pretty disappointed.

Whenever I was let down by adults when I was a kid, I vowed to do things differently when I got older. I have had many chances to show children that they do matter regardless of how big or small the problem. I have had this chance more often since I became an elementary custodian almost 25 years ago.

One of these moments came the other day when a second grade student came to me crying. She told me that she lost one of the lenses from her glasses in an air vent outside. This situation came at a really bad time. We had just received 5 inches of snow and I was tired of shoveling snow. The last thing I wanted to do was go looking for a lens from a pair of glasses. After much searching, I found the lens giving it to the girl waiting above. She was so thrilled to have the lens to her glasses back.

This made me realize we each have things that matter to us. They might not mean a thing to others but they matter to us. Small random acts of kindness make a difference in the lives of everyone, we have a connection with. When a student asks me to get their shoe off the roof, or they have a ball that needs to be blown up, I help them with a smile. The children at my school know that I care, and their concerns matter.

The Fundraiser

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Screen shot 2014-10-14 at 3.25.18 PMI remember a kind couple who loved my parents, John and Nome Mackaleash. They enjoyed visiting with our family. I remember one time when they came to our home that my sister Rachel was involved in a fundraiser, and was selling boxes of M&M candies for one dollar. This was big money in the 1980’s. I remember John pulled out 20 dollars and bought the whole case of candy. He then gave each one of us our own box.

Fast forward 20 years and my children are doing a school fundraiser. I totally discouraged my children from doing any fundraisers. I would say, “I will give you a dollar if you don’t do that fundraiser.” I was very nasty with everyone trying to sell me anything. One day I was listening to one of my audio books. The guy in the book is telling everyone to be more generous with their money and it will come back ten fold. I started doing this and it works.
Now when children come over to the house selling things I buy from everyone. I think back to the great example and generosity of my parents’ friends. We must give more in order to receive more.

Generous giving of ourselves produces a generous harvest. I think this is why I enjoy using and sharing essential oils so much. When I use an essential oil that has personally effected my life in a positive way, I cant wait to share it with others. I love using a product that has no harmful side effects, that gives people another option for hope on their journey for better health.

Serving Others

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Daniel Fish GraduationA few years ago I was at my son Daniel’s graduation ceremony from High School. The principal started her commencement talk by recognizing people who have made a difference at Hunter High School

She first had the 4.0 students stand, then the honor roll students, one by one and sometimes in large groups people were standing in recognition for things they had accomplished.Lastly she requested that anyone who had provided a service stand. Almost everyone was standing at this point.

I noticed there were 6-8 people still seated at this point. I thought to myself, “How sad that these students were still sitting down.” Either they didn’t understand the importance of service or they couldn’t recognize the times they were serving even when they were helping others.

One of the reasons I like essential oils so much is I know others will benefit from using them, I love going out of my way to help people. At this point it is no longer about making money, it is about helping and serving others. As a result of this attitude I have been blessed with many amazing experiences with people using essential oils.

Twice Baked Chickens

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Chickens.png

Recently at my moms 81st birthday party many of her ten kids took a moment to remember funny stories from our families past. It was fun to hear stories from the perspective of my parents and siblings, we had lots of great laughs. One of the stories I remember very well took place when I was a young teenager.

Our family was returning home from a rare family vacation to Southern Utah when we saw the clouds form and the pouring rain begin to flood the streets. Two months prior, my dad purchased 50 baby chicks that our family was raising so we would have meat on the table for the coming year.

The closer we got to home the more concerned we were for our half grown chicks. The chickens were bred for their meat not for their brains so we knew these birds would be in trouble. Sure enough, when we arrived home the chicken coup was flooded. Most of the chicks were near death, laying in the water, even though they could have climbed onto their roosting perch that would have kept them dry and safe.

We took all the chicks out of the wet, murky, chicken coup and laid them on the lawn in our back yard. My mom had a brilliant idea. She said “why don’t we spray the chicks off with the water hose to clean them up, dry them off  with a towel, and then put the chicks in the oven on warm” We all snickered at the plan but thought it would work.

My brother Mel was funny. He was talking to the chicks as they were getting put in the oven, He said “we will see you back here in a few months, don’t get to comfortable in there.” We all laughed, making this overwhelming task of saving the lives of these chickens a lot more memorable. Not one of the chickens died during their rescue. We enjoyed many yummy dinners from the chickens that almost met their doom much earlier then planned.

I look back on my life on our small farm with fondness. This is were I learned the value of hard work. The days I spent planting, weeding, and harvesting our garden, feeding, and cleaning up after our animals have become priceless memories.

Headaches Past and Present.

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Leonard Fish age 11
Several years ago, almost in another lifetime, when I was 11 going on 12. I was on top of the world. I was in sixth grade. This is a pivotal year in school. I was finally king of the school. I had arrived at the top of the food chain as far as kids my age were thinking. I never was a cocky, arrogant kid wanting to show how big I was to the other younger kids. I was a little awkward socially, never feeling like I really fit in.

One thing everyone had to do in sixth grade was learn how to dance. I remember having a dance teacher that came to our school once a week for a couple of months. After we learned how to waltz we had a school dance where we had to fill out a dance card, asking girls to dance. It was very painful getting 10 different girls to dance with me to fill up my dance card.

When we started learning how to square dance I loved it, except when I was dancing with Wendy Ryan, one of the most popular girls in the school. Her hands were very sweaty. What I liked best was I didn’t have to ask a girl to dance with me. We were just paired up which made it a lot less stressful.

In the spring of my sixth grade year, I filled out my class schedule. I think this was the first time I realized I was going to be a little 7th grader. I started getting stressed about life, knowing my life as I knew it was about to change forever.

I started getting lots of migraine headaches that would get so bad I had to go to sleep to get rid of them. One of these migraines happened on my 12th birthday. That put a big damper on my special day. The headaches quit coming soon after I started my 7th grade year in school.

Leonard Fish
When I reflect on this experience I wish my family had the knowledge of essential oils. The oil that may help your headache is a headache relief blend of essential oils that contain wintergreen, lavender, peppermint, frankincense, cilantro, roman chamomile, marjoram basil, and rosemary. In some cases it works very quickly and effectively, relieving many stressful moments.

An Orange Triggers Happy Memories

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Orange Fruit
When I peel an orange, the natural oils spraying from the orange are inviting and creates an environment that is happy and uplifting. The smell of an orange also reminds me of Christmas. For many this is when very happy memories occur. I find it interesting how powerfully connected our memory is to our sense of smell.

Life happens to everyone. One day I was with my friend Charlie. On one of his rare days off we decided to go on a little road trip to visit some of our friends. We visited for a while. Before we left, Michelle asked me if I wanted to have a Zyto hand scan, to see what essential oils my body needed most at that point in my life.

Let me back up a bit, for those of you who don’t understand what Zyto technology is. It is a machine that looks like a giant computer mouse that sends impulses from your body to a computer. Then it measures how many bio markers are out of the normal range. There are 76 markers possible. The higher the mark, the more things in your body are not in the normal range.

After I did the Zyto scan I was pleasantly surprised how accurate the scan was. For the past few days I had been feeling a little bit down and discouraged, and also having a lack of energy. The number one essential oil that showed up on my scan was orange. Time and time again I have seen first hand the accuracy of the Zyto hand scan.

Every Child Has a Story

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Wayne Dyer lower or higher self
Every year I am drawn to kids that have painful stories to tell. It is an interesting ability that I have to be able to zero in on children that are in a lot of physical and emotional pain. I see these amazing kids that have gone through some very difficult situations at a very young age, and it is incredible.

One year I remember interacting with a sixth grade student named Jeff. He always seemed to be a little off socially. I was intrigued, and felt a connection with Jeff that I can’t explain. Many times I would be asked to let Jeff help me clean the school rather than going out to recess, so Jeff could do community service for breaking school rules.

I loved talking to Jeff. I always liked making Jeff feel important. One day on the local news I saw a story about Jeff. The news reporter went on to say that Jeff’s parents had been handcuffing Jeff to his bed when he came home from school. I was so surprised to learn about the painful abuse he was going through.

You never know what challenges someone is going through. Because of Jeff, and many other kids Like him. I choose to celebrate their strengths instead of focusing on their weaknesses. I love my job because everyday I ask myself this question “who do I get to help today”? When you reach out to children with kindness they respond very positively.